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Best. Lesbian. Week. Ever. (April 4, 2008)

PLEASE DON’T BE TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE

This week, NBC announced that the remade Knight Rider (which aired on the network as a two-hour movie in February) will return this fall as an hour-long series. This means that this fall we can count on one (that’s right, one!) lesbian/bi character in a scripted prime-time network show: FBI agent Carrie Rivai, played by Sydney Tamiia Poitier.

At this time, since Cashmere Mafia is no longer on the air and things don’t look good for its return, there are no lesbian/bi characters in scripted prime-time broadcast TV. This has been the case, off and on, for years, so this news is quite welcome – especially because Poitier is also a woman of color. Finding lesbians of color on network TV is even harder than finding lesbians.

Nonetheless, since I’m a lesbian who’s been burned one too many times by network storytelling, I’m a little concerned. In the Knight Rider movie, Agent Rivai’s sexual orientation blasts on-screen within the first few minutes, when she comes back from a morning surf and says goodbye to a woman she picked up the night before. The woman is lying naked in bed, and it’s clear that they had a sexual encounter. The words lesbian or bisexual are never spoken, but it’s obvious that Rivai plays for our team.

This is great, right? Yeah, except for the fact that immediately preceding this scene, there was one involving a straight man waking up with two girls, implying they had a threesome. So the titillation button had already been pushed by the time we saw Rivai and her pretty one-night stand. The rest of the movie – which is clearly targeted toward teenage boys – is a tedious sequence of fast cars, burning rubber and fist fights, along with gratuitous leering at women (Poitier included). Ick. And yawn.

I’m not convinced that Agent Rivai’s sexual orientation will have much to do with anything – unless it’s used as a stereotypical turn-on for men. Hopefully, though, I’m just a jaded journalist and suck at predicting the story lines of television dramas. Perhaps Agent Rivai will prove to be a sharp-witted crime-fighter whose heart can only be won by an intelligent woman.

No matter what happens, at least we’ll always have the dream.

BUTCH CHARACTER ALERT!

Out Taiwanese director Zero Chou‘s (Spider Lilies) latest film, Drifting Flowers, opened in Hong Kong last month, and it will be coming to the LGBT film festival circuit in the U.S. this summer (Wolfe is distributing). The film has three segments, and the first and third are interrelated through the character of Diego (Chao Yi-lan), a butch accordionist.

Variety gave the film a lukewarm review, arguing that the middle segment, about an Alzheimer’s victim, seems like an “interruption” in the film, and characterizing much of the film as speaking “largely in lesbian cliches.” However, it also gave props to Chao Yi-lan for her portrayal of Diego, and I’m really looking forward to seeing this representation of a butch Chinese lesbian on-screen.

Wolfe sent me some more stills from the film yesterday, and I can tell you that the actors, at least, are super cute. Take a look:

Watch for an interview with Zero Chou here on AfterEllen.com early next month.

SKINS: IS THIS SHOW ABOUT SPORTS OR PORN?

British teen drama Skins flirted with lesbianism last week when Cassie (Hannah Murray) slept with another girl. In the episode, “Effy,” Cassie was angry that her boyfriend, Sid, had slept with another girl, which prompted her to go into a “slut spiral.” Her conquests included guys and a girl. You can watch a clip of their kiss here (warning: mature language), or check out these blurry screencaps I made:

By the end of the episode, Cassie goes back to her boyfriend. So although it’s “not massively exciting for lesbian and bisexual viewers” (as AfterEllen.com blogger browne put it), the show has been inclusive of homosexuality from the get-go and has one openly gay male character, Maxxie.

I think it’s a toss-up. It’s always great when a show includes gay characters and gay sex in a matter-of-fact-way. But I am a little tired of story lines about girls experimenting with other girls, only to go back to their boyfriends. Not that it’s entirely unrealistic; it’s just annoying. Can’t a girl experiment with a guy and then go back to her girlfriend for once? I hope so.

EVERYONE WANTS A SHOT WITH DANI

A recent issue of San Diego’s monthly lesbian magazine, Lavender Lens, featured an interview with Dani Campbell in which she explained that she’s been talking with MTV about developing her own series.

The issue is no longer online, but here are the important parts of the interview (thanks to cmeddc for the tip!):

LL: So now that you are off the show and everything is done do you have any plans for a spin off or anything?

DC: We’re in talks. I’m in contact with MTV/Viacom and their production company. And they want to do a show with me. So it’s in the talks right now we are in negotiation so hopefully we will be seeing something by the end of this year or starting at the beginning of next year.

LL: Wonderful. Is there any chance that you will be moving to the LA area to pursue that career?

DC: No, I won’t be moving. It’s just one season that they want to do. Then if it were to be successful then that would be another negotiating thing. You know I do have a career and I don’t want to jeopardize what I have worked for just for fifteen minutes of fame. I’ll do the show and take some time off and then if it was successful and they wanted to do a couple more seasons then it would have to be worth it.

Well, I just hope there are no Vanessa-types involved. Foam would be OK, though.

‘CAUSE WE CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF LESBIANS IN PRISON

As some of our British readers have pointed out to us, Sarah Waters‘ second novel, Affinity, about a Victorian woman who volunteers in a women’s prison (yes, lesbionic shenanigans ensue), has been made into a TV movie (adapted by Andrew Davies) that will air in the U.K. this spring on ITV1. If you are not in the U.K., don’t despair! We are happy to announce that Affinity will air on Logo, AfterEllen.com’s parent company, later this summer, and it will be available on DVD afterward.

I was lucky enough to recently watch a screener of Affinity, and I thoroughly enjoyed the movie’s gloomy atmosphere and creepy undertones. Some folks didn’t like the book so much because it’s not as cheerfully sexy as Tipping the Velvet or Fingersmith, but I really loved the book. What can I say? I like a dark and disturbing tale involving spiritual mediums and the clanking chains of a women’s prison. Yes, I’m twisted.

The movie had to streamline some of the plot because of time restrictions, but overall I thought it did a good job of capturing the feel of the book. Here are a few screenshots from the movie:

In a recent interview with Diva about the movie version of Affinity, Sarah Waters admitted, “My girlfriend thinks we should have had Bodybag from Bad Girls [in the programme].” Now that would have been something!

DEMI, MORE!

Last week on So You Think You Can Dance Australia, out lesbian Demi Sorono was forced to “dance for her life” in order to prevent herself from being kicked off the show. Though she started the competition as a b-girl, her original style has been obscured by girlish dresses every since – until this week. Watch her b-girl moves here:

That third judge is lame. That performance was awesome!

THIS WEEK IN ELLEN

Ellen DeGeneres was certainly busy this week, as she made her way into my in box in several ways. (Get your minds out of the gutter, folks! Hee.)

First up: GLAAD announced that Ellen will be presenting Janet Jackson with the Vanguard Award at the 19th Annual GLAAD Media Awards on Saturday, April 26, 2008, at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles. You may be excused for wondering why Miss Jackson’s getting a GLAAD award, since she hasn’t really done anything, well, gay recently.

According to GLAAD, “The Vanguard Award is presented to media professionals who, through their work, have increased the visibility and understanding of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.” Still confused? Me too (though I don’t doubt Janet’s very LGBT-friendly). Let’s just focus on the fact that Ellen will be handing out the award. Perhaps GLAAD thinks that Ellen’s gayness will somehow rub off onto the recipient.

Meanwhile, Ellen backed out of co-hosting Fox’s Idol Gives Back, citing scheduling conflicts. Really? It’s not a protest action due to Idol‘s continued lack of out lesbian/bi contestants? Darn.

And finally, the April 11 issue of Entertainment Weekly arrived in my mailbox yesterday with Ellen on the cover.

In the interview, EW asked Ellen if the subject of her sexuality arose when producers were planning her first sitcom, originally known as These Friends of Mine. Ellen replied:

People didn’t know what to do with me. If you have the lead of a show, she is usually married or looking for the right guy. I was honest with Carol [Black] and Neal [Marlens]. I said, “This may affect what you’re doing. I’m gay.” They knew, so I said, “Okay, I just don’t want any surprises, and I don’t want you to spend all this money, invest in me, and think that I’m keeping it a secret.” They asked if I wanted to be gay on the show, and I said, “No, God no!” I was still very closeted. But I just wanted to be honest so they didn’t feel like they were getting tricked or something.

I’m certainly glad that Ellen worked out her issues about being out, but I can’t help but think that TV producers certainly have limited imaginations. Gee, isn’t there anything a female lead character could do besides be married or search for Mr. Right? I’m at a loss for words.

THINK GLOBAL, SCREEN LOCAL

As the LGBT film festival season draws near in the U.S., more and more “foreign films” will be sliding into cinemas in the next few months. We’ve just gotten word that Shamim Sarif‘s The World Unseen has already been scheduled to screen at several film festivals so far, including Phoenix this week, Atlanta, Miami Gay & Lesbian, Boston Gay & Lesbian and Inside Out in Toronto.

In addition, Water Lilies, a French film about three 15-year-old girls, opens in New York on April 4, and will also be coming to some LGBT film festivals near you, including Boston. Here’s a trailer for Water Lilies:

Look for a review of Water Lilies on AfterEllen.com in the near future.

CAN I SUPPORT BAD GRAMMAR IN THE NAME OF HUMOR?

AE blogger thelinster alerted me to lol-word, a site that combines Lolcats with The L Word.

Some of you may be going, “Huh?!” I had kinda the same reaction when I first went to the site, because I didn’t quite understand Lolcats. Thankfully, there’s Wikipedia. Apparently a Lolcat is an image of a cat combined with a humorous caption in broken English known as “kitty pidgin.” A Lolword is a photo from The L Word combined with the humorous, poorly written caption. Here’s an example:

When I understood what a Lolcat/Lolword was supposed to be like, it totally cracked me up. However, I still have a nagging feeling that I should not be endorsing anything involving bad grammar or improperly spelled words – especially when they’re misspelled and badly structured on purpose. My ninth-grade English teacher is shuddering right now!

But how can you resist this?

I think I’m too busy LMAO to be offended by the grammar. LOL.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

After flying largely under the radar and not forming any women’s alliances, Ami Cusack was voted off the island on last night’s Survivor Micronesia: Fans vs. Favorites. See you at the reunion!

Jodie Foster‘s latest movie, the family-friendly Nim’s Island, opens this weekend.

Daily Motion has launched a Gay & Lesbian channel that includes many of our vlogs and videos.

The Oscar-winning short documentary Freeheld will air on June 4 on Cinemax.

Project Outpost, a queer version of Post Secret, is now accepting submissions;

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently published an article about female wrestlers, including lesbian ones (thanks Mollykins!).

More information has been released about why Lily Tomlin’s 12 Miles of Bad Road was dropped by HBO; the good news is that it apparently wasn’t due to Tomlin.

Kate and Julie’s Big Gay Vlog will be postponed until next week due to technical problems.

Most of the AfterEllen.com crew is at Dinah Shore in Palm Springs this weekend. In one last-minute addition, Jackie Jones and Liz Feldman will be performing stand-up at the AfterEllen.com AfterNoon. Meanwhile, I will be holding down the fort in San Francisco, far from the madding crowd. Cheers!

That’s it for this week! Got the inside scoop on a hot new lesbian/bi actor/musician/TV show/film? Tell us at [email protected] . Check back next Friday for another edition of Best. Lesbian. Week. Ever.

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